The Last Husband (Forever Love #2)(59)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“I don’t know what to say.” My mouth dropped open.

“Don’t say anything.” He laughed. “I just want you to know I’m glad my brother found you.”

“I love him.”

“I can see that.” He looked around the room and sighed. “I couldn’t tell him, you know? You can’t fake heartache and pain, no matter how much you want to. And for him to bring down Braydon and Angelique, he had to be believable.”

“You knew?” I frowned, not really understanding what was going on.

“Yeah.” He ran his hand through his dark hair and he reminded me so much of his brother that it was uncanny. “I got caught up with Braydon and Angelique. Not doing any hard stuff, just smoking some weed, but I guess you could say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We went down to Mexico City one weekend, and let’s just say I saw some things I shouldn’t have seen.”

“Oh yeah?”

“The guy in charge, Sanchez, ordered a hit on one of his dealers that had given the police some information on a shipment from Colombia.”

“Oh, my God.” My face paled at his words.

“I was sitting in the toilet in the next room as he ordered it.” Noah shook his head. “I wasn’t meant to overhear any of it.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, as I sat there, I planned to tell Braydon that we needed to hightail it out of there, but then I heard his voice.”

“Braydon’s voice?” I gasped.

“Yeah, he was the one Sanchez was telling to order the hit! I nearly shit my pants. I thought we had just gone down for some good weed, I didn’t think all that was going down.”

“So what did you do?”

“I kept my mouth shut and pretended like I hadn’t seen or heard anything. When I got back to L.A., I called a number I found online and ended up speaking to someone in the FBI who was investigating Sanchez and Braydon.”

“Wow.” I looked at him with shocked eyes. His story sounded like something from a movie, and it was all I could do to not make loud gasping sounds.

“Yeah, it was pretty crazy.” He looked at me with direct eyes. “I didn’t want to go away you know. I knew Zane would take it badly, but the Agent told me it was the only way to guarantee my safety and bring down the cartel.”

“Why is that?”

“Braydon found out I went to the cops.” Noah sighed. “I didn’t realize Angelique was involved so deeply, I told her some things. She told Braydon, and when I told the agent at the FBI, he set it up so that everyone would think I died.”

“By jumping off of a roof?”

“I didn’t actually jump.” His voice was irritated and he reminded me of Zane even more. “Braydon was an idiot for believing that. But he was f**king high, he had no clue what was going on. I made him think I was high and depressed, like they told me to do and when he left the roof to go get something, I ran down the emergency exit stairs. The ambulance and police were ready and waiting to go as soon as they saw me make it outside.”

“So, it was a setup?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “They put me on a stretcher and made sure that Braydon saw me being escorted into the ambulance.”

“But didn’t he wonder who called 911?”

“They had a guy with his dog.” He laughed. “They thought of everything. They had this guy pretending he had been walking his dog, and he was there screaming about how he saw me jump. So Braydon just assumed what the cops said was true.”

“Wow.” I paused and sat back thoughtfully. “So that’s why Zane was never able to see your body, huh?”

Noah nodded and grinned. “I see you’re a smart one.”

“And that is why Braydon’s story and the police report didn’t really add up.” I played with my curls as all the inconsistencies came to mind. “Braydon really didn’t witness you jumping off the roof, so he wasn’t lying in the interrogation. He couldn’t have saved you because you never died.”

“Crazy, right, Lucky?” Zane walked back into the room and handed Noah his drink.

“Thanks for telling me about the plan before it went down, Noah.”

“We needed everyone to think that I was dead.” Noah shook his head and sighed. “They told you that man. It wasn’t my choice.”

“You can’t just disappear and make people think that you’re dead, man. You were all I had. You f**king tore me apart.”

“I’m sorry.” Noah’s voice was soft and I could tell he was devastated at Zane’s obvious hurt. “But we did it, man, we got them.”

“You risked my life, Noah, you risked Lucky’s life. If anything had happened to her…” He took a deep breath and I saw his face turning red. “Do you know she went on a date with Braydon?” Zane’s voice rose with anger. “Who knows what he may have tried to do to her?”

“You dated Braydon?” Noah looked at me in surprise and I rolled my eyes.

“I did not date Braydon, we were friends and we went to dinner.”

“He wanted more than dinner from you.” Zane glared at me and downed his whiskey.

“Well, I didn’t want more from him.”

“You thought he was a nice guy.” Zane’s eyes narrowed. “You …”

“Bro, don’t get mad at her when it’s me you really want to punch.”

“I do want to punch you, you jerk.” Zane looked at his brother and then brought him in for a hug. “If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will kill you myself.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t plan on doing that again then.” They grinned at each other and something hit me. Something I wanted to ask but I didn’t know if I should bring up.

“Did Sidney Johnson know?” My voice was quiet as I asked the question in my mind, a part of me didn’t really want it to be heard, but I needed to know.

“What?” Noah turned towards me with a glint in his eyes and Zane froze still.

“She asked you if Sidney Johnson knew.” Zane looked at his brother and sighed. “You told Sidney Johnson and you didn’t tell me?”

“I could trust him.” Noah sighed and he looked at me. “How did you know he knew? I know he would never say a word.”

“He didn’t tell me exactly, but I think if I had really listened to some of the things he had told me, I wouldn’t be as surprised as I am now.”